Code printing and sorting station for mail



Nov. 17, 1959 RABINOW 2,912,925 7 CODE PRINTING AND SORTING STATION FORMAIL Filed March 13, 1958 3 Sheets-Sheet l PRINTER K 77MER mm E/VO/D CTo 25% m I FSOLENO/O F Ill Ti &

J4me RA swan Noi. 17, 1959 J. RABINOW 2,912,925

CODE PRINTING AND SORTING STATION FOR MAIL Filed March 13, 1958 3Sheets-Sheet 2 3mm (Z4005 RAB/Now Nov. 17, 1959 J. RABINOW CODE PRINTINGAND SORTING STATION FOR MAIL 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed March 13, 1958 JacoaRAB/Now United States Patent Dffice 2,912,925

Patented Nov. 17, 1959 a keyboard 2 and the letters 3 are presented tohim by automatic machinery. A printer suitable for such ma- 2 912 925chines is described in my co-pending patent application for DifferentialPressure Envelope Printer, Serial No. CODE PRINTING AND SORTING STATION719,133, filed March 4, 1958. The letters may be fed FOR MAIL to theoperator by a vacuum pickofr' device 4 which is well-known to the artsuch as, for instance, is described Jacob 22:2 gfiggi fi ga ggfgz zfii gfifteen in Us. Patent No. 2,792,218, to F. Van Marle. The

operator reads the address and operates the keyboard Application March1958, serial 721,131 10 so as to print on the back of the envelope aseries of dots representing the address, usually in abbreviated form,

4 Clalms' (CL 101 2) as shown in my above-referred-to co-pendingapplication.

He then pushes one of several keys 6 which operate a chute mechanism 7,shown in Fig. 2, that releases the This invention relat s t h a of pp ycode marks letter into one of several stacks 8. In Fig. 1, I show toPieces Of mail and of sorting these into Several 6916- a completecoding-sorting unit with its own output stacks. gories. One arrangementfor dropping the letter after printing Th is a large of machinery usedfor the auteand for separating into the stacks is shown in Fig. 2.

matlc and semi-automatic sorting of letter mail. These Wh key 11 idepressed indicating that the operator machines generally break downinto two classes: One, a t th l t t go i th outgoing stack 12, a l

in Whic a let e is read y an Operator and the Sorting noid 13 isenergized which causes its armature 14 to machine is controlled by theoperator so that the letter move up causing i 16 d 17 to i i on h leverreaches its correct destination. In such machines, gen- 18 tt h d t throtary h ft 19, Thi shaft swings erally, an operator op a a y a d whichcontrols the chute or gate 7which deflects the letter into the pocket aconveyor that distributes the mail. In another class 12, If one wants toseparate h letter 0f automatic sorting machines the letters are markedfour keys and four solenoids are necessary, as shown, y a code,generally consisting of printed dots, Which The ins 16, 17, etc., foreach solenoid are so located are then read by photoelectric means. Theinformation that the gate assumes the correct position as each key h gah re is tr nsfer int some electronic memis pressed. The release of theletter initiates a cycle ory which controls the sorting machine thatdistributes t ll d by a ti 22 hi h permits a new letter to the mail. Weare concerned, generally speaking, with drop in front of the printingstation. For example, a

this second class of machinery except that this invenvacuum line can bemade to open, sucking the letter tion combines some of the features ofmanual sort with against the face plate of the printer, as shown in mythe automatic devices. co-pending application above referred to.Thereafter the In sorting mail i is g ner l y important to separateoperator can start printing the new abbreviated address. the local fr mth tg g mail, and both of these from Fig. 3 shows the second embodimentof this invention airmail and other special letters at the earliestpossible Thi embodiment how a thod f collecting th l tt moment. This isnecessary because outgoing mail in not in individual stacks for eachoperator as shown in large cities has to make connections with varioustrains Fig. 1, but in master stacks 30 fed by a conveyor belt andairplanes while the mail for local distribution is 40 31 which collectsthe letters from many operators. In

generally sorted late at night, or early morning, long this embodimentthe swinging gate 7 of each machine after the outgoing mail has left. Itis a principal purinstead of dropping the letter directly into areceiving pose of this invention to provide a coding station wherepocket drops it onto the moving belt 31. Above this human operators canmark envelopes and at the same belt there is a group of verticalpartitions 33, 34, etc. time do a certain amount of sorting so as toexpedite the which guide the letters into the correct stackers. Athandling of mails. the receiving end of the machine there areconventional Another object is to provide a coding machine whichstackers 30 such as are used in the post ofiice today In and without anyattention on the part of the operator; It should be understood that suchstackers are wellthls enables immediate sorting of 1118101 categories,parknown to the art and the details of their construction tlcularlythose requlrlng special or expedited handling are not a part of thepresent invention The advantage While the objects sorted are referred toas letter mail, of having only a few ma or stackers is that an operatorany objects which must be sorted and delivered to a machines can standat one place, su plurality of predetermined destinations, and the termsthe stackers, and in this way service a great many coding mail andletters are intended to include any such operators. It is also possibleby this arrangement to have objects. the coding operators close togetherand to simplify their The specific nature of my invention, as well asother equipment. objects and advantages thereof, will clearly appearfrom While a letter separation into four stacks is shown, a adescription of a preferred embodiment as shown in the larger number can,of course, be used. The swinging accompanying drawings, in which: gate,particularly in the design of Fig. 3 which uses the Fig. 1 is asectional schematic view of a machine moving belt, can have manypositions, and separations of according to the invention; the order often groups are entirely feasible Fig. 2 is a perspective detail view ofa chute control While I so far have shown the separation being donemechanism for the machine of Fig. 1; entirely by manual control, thatis, where the operator Fig. 3 is a perspective view of anotherembodiment has to decide where to put the letter, automatic means of theinvention; and to do this are possible as shown in Fig 4 Here a relayFig. 4 is a schematic diagram of a control network network is used whichautomatically recognizes, from the for automatically sorting andprinting. operation of the printing code, which of the stacks the Fig. 1shows the general scheme of my machine. In letter is destined for. Forexample, if the operator is the embodiment shown in Fig. 1, an operatorsits before sorting mail in Washington and presses only the key marked-Pindicating that the letter is intended for the Pentagon, relay 41connected to the P key will be energized so that the letter will bedirected to the P stack without further efiort on the part of theoperator, by actuating the P' s olenoid (see Fig. 2'). Similarly a bankof relays can be wired to 'keys 2 and 5 which are depressed to code theletter for zone 25 (in Washington all Governmentmail). Thus if theoperator in Washington pressed key 2 followed by key 5, the letter willbe sent directly to that stack without further attention, Relay 2 is aslow break relay; thus its contacts stay closed long enough to permitrelay 5 to operate it the two are keyed in rapid sequence. Theparticular arrangement of such a function table depends on thedistribution of mail in a particular city and many other factors. Theexamples merely show several of many possible ways of attachingelectrical devices to the keyboard which Willnot .only'print a code onthe back of an envelope but also control an initial sort -without anincrease in the time of operation.

The advisability of this pre-sort can be understood when one remembersthat about half of the mail originating in a typical large city isdesignated for points outside of the city and it is imperative that thismail be handled and sorted asquickly as possible. If no presort wereused at the coding station, all of the letters would have to be passedinto the automatic sorting machines thus cutting the efiective speed ofthe machine for outgoing mail in half. Since there is a good deal oftime availablelater at night for sorting the bulk of the local mail, thepre-sort of the mail at the coding station enables the subsequentsorting machinery to operate exclusively on the outgoing mail first,thus greatly expediting the functioning of the post office.

The separation of airmail, registered, and other unique mail is alsoadvantageous because these have to be handled in a special manner. Themain feature of the invention is that not only is the operator able toact on a letter so as to convert the address into a form more suitablefor machine handling, but his intelligence is also used for performingpart of the sorting function.

Although the invention-has been described in connection with a mailhandling apparatus, it will be apparent that the apparatus can also beadapted to many other articles and uses, such, for example, as thehandling of checks in clearing house operations, and the distributionand addressing of any articles which require addressing, distributionand sorting.

It will be apparent that the embodiments shown are only exemplary andthat various modifications can be made in construction and arrangementwithin the scope of my invention as defined in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A mail coding and sorting machine comprising an individual letterpickup device, means for feeding a stack of mail to said pickup devicefor picking up one letter at a time, 'a code printing device suppliedwith individual letters by said pickup device for printing a destinationcode on each such letter, an operator-controlled keyboard device forcontrolling the printing device to print the destination code on eachletter, a plurality of sorting channels each having a letter-receivinginput located adjacent the code printing device for receiving saidindividual letters after printing, and channel selector means controlledby said keyboard means for directing each letter into a selected one ofsaid channel inputs after it has been printed.

2. The invention according to claim 1, said channel selector meanscomprising a gravity slide chute movable into a plurality of positionsto direct a letter from the printing device toward any selected one ofsaid channels, a selector means for moving said chute into respectiveones of said positions, and operating means for said selector meanscontrolled by said keyboard device.

3. The invention according to claim 2, said slide chute being fixedlymounted on a rotatable shaft for rotational movement into any one ofsaid positions, said selector means comprising a plurality of individualmotor means controlled by said keyboard device for respectively movingsaid shaft into said positions.

4. The invention according to claim 1, said channel selector meanscomprising electrical circuit means con trolled by the printing keys ofthe keyboard device according to a combinational characteristic of thedestination code printed to select a particular channel.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS

